Retirement, the way it is often portrayed, can seem like an all-or-nothing prospect: quit working, wear your pants higher, eat dinner earlier. What if your ideal post-job life still involves some work? Here's how one semi-retired adventurer planned her future.

Writing at the Get Rich Slowly personal finance blog, Lisa Aberle recounts the pad-and-calculator sessions she stepped through to figure out if she and her husband could afford to quit working full-time. Right before the leap, they earned as much as they could, cut out all non-housing debt, and saved as much as they could—all good moves. The next calculation, always the hardest, is figuring out what you really need to live in a new stage of life:

Some expenses (like transportation costs and work clothes) will decrease. Others (utilities and health insurance) will increase. Once we knew how much money we needed, we started looking for the money to replace our full-time income. ... We don't have real estate and with very little investment income, we knew that money must come from part-time employment.

Do you know someone who's found a middle path of semi-retirement, and found it good? Are you planning for a similar not-quite-done phase? Tell us about it in the comments.